[anon9001]

Non-incel here (I swear, ignore the username) who read your post and some of the accompanying thread. Valid feelings, a little cringey, I hope you figure yourself out, but that's not what I want to comment about.

I spend more time than I should reading extremist content (ok, go ahead, look at the username) because I think the behavior of that crowd is fascinating and disturbingly influential. And sometimes it's funny. Also, they now set US policy, so maybe we should be paying attention.

> I will clear it up now: I am not any kind of incel, conspiracy theory believer, advocate of violence or racism, or follower of any dogma, philosophy, or charismatic person of any kind.

When people talk about "alt right pipeline", this is it, but casper isn't the perpetrator. He's the target.

Ok, not casper specifically. In those circles, they'd make fun of him blogging about his feelings for obvious reasons. Then they'd make fun of his artsy picture, then that he took down his picture, and once more if he puts it back up. The cycle of abuse would continue until he stops reacting to the crowd.

But it's a window into just how isolated people are and what it feels like to not have community. And we know there's millions or maybe tens of millions of people that feel this way and are nowhere near capable of articulating it.

It's so easy to imagine someone in his position be enticed a movement that has a consistent-ish ideology and purpose greater than yourself. And as a bonus, it comes with a group of regular guys that also hang out on discord or telegram all day and share memes. They might even meet up in the woods sometimes, just to drink some beers and bbq and shoot some guns once a month. Or "protect" an election or school board by providing "security". You know, community stuff.

> No, I am only interested in something real, whatever that may be.

So few can cope with this emotion by blogging about their feelings. For a lot of people "blame the others" seems to be the easiest way to cope with this feeling.

(Also, archive.org still has your picture up, either fix your link or remove the broken img tag. You just look like another @jack clone anyway and nobody cares.)

[lawl]

> When people talk about "alt right pipeline", this is it, but casper isn't the perpetrator. He's the target.

Some of us were on imageboards when pools were being closed. I am sure there's a number of people that don't understand that 'glowies' isn't meant to be serious, but a reference to someone who also used to post on hackernews. But I can assure you, at least pre us politics, most got that it was just dark humor.

Just like I will not accept that pepe the frog is some hate symbol, I will not accept that image boards are an alt right pipeline. If there is such a thing, they're mostly quarantined to a politics board. Who cares? Dont look at it if it bothers you.

[Zababa]

Sorry to single you out specifically, but you look like you've thought a lot about that kind of thing, so I'll ask. When you say:

> But it's a window into just how isolated people are and what it feels like to not have community.

What do you mean by community? I see this word everywhere online, and never really understood it. I think it's mostly an American thing, but I'm not sure. I can see how someone has family, friends, acquaintances from work or hobbies, but I don't get what's meant by "community".

[anon9001]

I think the original article painted it pretty well. If you could disappear and nobody would notice, you probably aren't part of a community. Shared interests and activities definitely count if there's meaningful interaction happening. Work can be a type of community too.

The hallmarks of community IMO are some shared values, some shared purpose, recurring interactions, united under some named banner. A well functioning workplace can feel a lot like a thriving community.

I don't really have much in the way of community myself at the moment, but I have experienced it before. I think it's one of those things like sex where everyone who's never participated thinks it's a huge deal, but once you've been at it a little while, it's still important, but the framing shifts a lot.

It's one thing to be a stable loner that's not invested in any group, but it's another to desperately be seeking a community without the experience to know what's "normal". That's where the parasocial stuff starts happening.

[saulpw]

My definition of community is, a group of people that is a source of new relationships. It's bigger than a circle of friends; a community is necessarily large enough that not everyone knows everyone. But it's also cohesive enough, that if you throw a party and invite a community, you have a reasonable sense of who (or at least what kind of people) are going to show up.